Mythoi Book II: Where the Circle Begins
Written by James Michael Ninness
Illustrated by Jed Soriano and Brian Soriano
Published by Semantink Publishing
If you’re not familiar with Mythoi, then shame on you, you haven’t been paying attention… writer James Michael Ninness found PoP! early on and we here have happily passed along our humble opinions on Semantink’s high action tale of myths and monsters. After the first volume collected the character specific one-shots, volume two hits today to tie these characters together and explore their shared story. The result is absolute mayhem, and it’s fantastic!
The recipe for Mythoi is simple but ingenious – take the supporting characters from ancient lore and put them in the sandbox of the modern world. The result is something like Ultimates meets Fables, where the son of Ares (yes, Greek god of war, Ares) is brought in to investigate an attack on the President by a pack of werewolves led by Heathcliff (of Wuthering Heights, not the one who ran afoul of the junkyard cats) under the employ of – no, that would be telling. The point is, it’s a fantastic cacophony of fantastic characters brought together by fate in the form of writer James Michael Ninness. The story takes some fun twists and turns as it unfolds, and by the end of Book II, the scene is fairly well set for these characters and their future together.
The other half of the creative duties is divided between Jed Soriano in the first half of the book and Brian Soriano in the latter half. And no, they’re not related. In fact, the last name is where the similarity between these two artists ends. If the former’s sparse, almost cartoonish linework isn’t for you, hang in there with the story until Brian picks up art chores in the last three chapters. The change in style is a bit of a shock, at first, but clearly a better fit to the story and characters. I won’t lie, I still feel like something is missing from the mix, artistically. Not that Brian’s art is in any way bad, just that it doesn’t quite evoke the presence I feel the narrative deserves. Or maybe it’s a matter of the coloring? I’m not quite sure, but while better, the art still isn’t quite a perfect fit.
Still, with the improvement in the back nine, the increasingly intertwined story, and the unique and intriguing characters, Myhtoi Book II: Where the Circle Begins gets an easy4.5 out of 5 winged midgets
